American Connector Company Analysis
Executive SummaryQuality and efficiency is the key to American Connector Company (ACC) success. ACC has lost market share to DJC over the recent years, which will be exacerbated if DJC opens a production facility in the United States. DJC has gained much knowledge from its Kawasaki plant and is going to enter the US market with factories that will be efficient. ACC is in trouble and needs to drastically change the way they do business if they want to survive.
Looking and emulating DJC is the first step American Connector needs to follow. American Connector can regain market share and survive by focusing on quality and efficiency. ACC needs to do the following to ensure success before DJC enters the US market:1)Redesigning their factory layout for a more streamlined operation.
2)Purchase new equipment that is in better shape and more efficient. Institute a good maintenance program to ensure the equipment runs properly.
3)Work with the consumer to create a good simplistic design.
4)Continue to keep employees happy to make sure they remain at the company and ACC retains this intellectual property.
5)Implement a Quality Control Division. ACC cannot rely on identifying defective parts only after production. They need to implement quality control throughout the process, which will reduce costs and increase efficiency and profitability.
Industry BackgroundJapan and the United States have had a different mentality and work ethic over the past centuries but it has become especially apparent over the last 30 years. The United States relies on money, technological sophistication and reputation/name recognition. Japan has been able to get ahead with hard work, innovations, and technological advances. To the dislike of many American companies, Japan has taken technologies created by US companies and reverse engineered and improved on them until they were the dominant company in the industry. A good example is shown with the DJC Corporation in Japan. They took ideas,
Looking and emulating DJC is the first step American Connector needs to follow. American Connector can regain market share and survive by focusing on quality and efficiency. ACC needs to do the following to ensure success before DJC enters the US market:1)Redesigning their factory layout for a more streamlined operation.
2)Purchase new equipment that is in better shape and more efficient. Institute a good maintenance program to ensure the equipment runs properly.
3)Work with the consumer to create a good simplistic design.
4)Continue to keep employees happy to make sure they remain at the company and ACC retains this intellectual property.
5)Implement a Quality Control Division. ACC cannot rely on identifying defective parts only after production. They need to implement quality control throughout the process, which will reduce costs and increase efficiency and profitability.
Industry BackgroundJapan and the United States have had a different mentality and work ethic over the past centuries but it has become especially apparent over the last 30 years. The United States relies on money, technological sophistication and reputation/name recognition. Japan has been able to get ahead with hard work, innovations, and technological advances. To the dislike of many American companies, Japan has taken technologies created by US companies and reverse engineered and improved on them until they were the dominant company in the industry. A good example is shown with the DJC Corporation in Japan. They took ideas,
References: http://net.mba.wfu.edu/Shafer/FulltimeOpsStrategy/acc%20handouts.ppt